Piratical Sabbatical
Aug. 13th, 2010 08:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kestrellFirst, thank you to the people who posted happy birthday wishes on my Facebook page--I tried to figure out how to reply, but I've never actually posted to my wall before, and I didn't have enough brain to figure it out, but I really appreciated the messages.
And to think: not only do I get a meteor shower on my birthday, but I also get a Friday the 13th on the day after, how cool is that?
For the past week or so I have been trying to lighten up the aerye. I got really tired of wanting to put stuff down or away and having no available space (really, personal DVDs almost seem like an outdated medium as opposed to storing everything on NetFlix, and as for audio cassettes...?), and I was also tired of all the dark colors. I've declutterd significantly--there's a floor which is actual and not merely theoretical!--and pulled out tie-dye and Hawaiian shirts to brighten things up. I'll be doing some more tie-dye in a couple of weeks. I may even be able to fit another bookcase into the aerye, if it is a skinny one.
The soundtrack for this venture has been a playlist of songs about sea, ships, pirates, and general outlaw types, with Surfing Safari Cthulhu perched on top of my boombox.
When not cleaning something I've been reading _Empire of Blue Water_ by Stephan Talty (2007), which is a very nice biography of Henry Morgan, the iconic pirate/privateer and the basis for many fictional pirates, such as Sabatini's Captain Blood, played to perfection in the film by Errol Flynn. _Empire of Blue Water_ is actually more of a cultural history, as it includes a lot of the social and political background, along with many descriptions of tactics and technologies such as the handmade French muskets the pirates used. There is also a glossary and a bibliography in the back. All in all, highly recommended to the pirate fan.
I feel much more ambivalent about
_The Code of the Zombie Pirate: How to Become an Undead Master of the High Seas (Zen of Zombie Series)_ by Scott Kenemore (October 2010). It's not so much the zombie pirates--those have been around since the days of weird fiction--but the fact that it is listed as a self-help book. Though I guess zombie pirates would be really good at helping themselves.
And to think: not only do I get a meteor shower on my birthday, but I also get a Friday the 13th on the day after, how cool is that?
For the past week or so I have been trying to lighten up the aerye. I got really tired of wanting to put stuff down or away and having no available space (really, personal DVDs almost seem like an outdated medium as opposed to storing everything on NetFlix, and as for audio cassettes...?), and I was also tired of all the dark colors. I've declutterd significantly--there's a floor which is actual and not merely theoretical!--and pulled out tie-dye and Hawaiian shirts to brighten things up. I'll be doing some more tie-dye in a couple of weeks. I may even be able to fit another bookcase into the aerye, if it is a skinny one.
The soundtrack for this venture has been a playlist of songs about sea, ships, pirates, and general outlaw types, with Surfing Safari Cthulhu perched on top of my boombox.
When not cleaning something I've been reading _Empire of Blue Water_ by Stephan Talty (2007), which is a very nice biography of Henry Morgan, the iconic pirate/privateer and the basis for many fictional pirates, such as Sabatini's Captain Blood, played to perfection in the film by Errol Flynn. _Empire of Blue Water_ is actually more of a cultural history, as it includes a lot of the social and political background, along with many descriptions of tactics and technologies such as the handmade French muskets the pirates used. There is also a glossary and a bibliography in the back. All in all, highly recommended to the pirate fan.
I feel much more ambivalent about
_The Code of the Zombie Pirate: How to Become an Undead Master of the High Seas (Zen of Zombie Series)_ by Scott Kenemore (October 2010). It's not so much the zombie pirates--those have been around since the days of weird fiction--but the fact that it is listed as a self-help book. Though I guess zombie pirates would be really good at helping themselves.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-14 02:35 am (UTC)Yay for bright colors.
Methinks zombie pirates would have a tendency to totter over the railings.